Snowden 'Flight Of Liberty' Campaign To Begin

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent

Campaign group WikiLeaks has said Edward Snowden's "Flight of Liberty campaign" is about to begin.

In a cryptic message posted on its Twitter feed late on Tuesday, the group, which has been advising Snowden, said: "Tomorrow the first phase of Edward Snowden's 'Flight of Liberty' campaign will be launched. Follow for further details."

A WikiLeaks' spokesperson told Sky News he was unable to comment further.

WikiLeaks legal researcher Sarah Harrison, a British citizen, is understood to be with Snowden and the organisation has previously issued statements on his behalf.

Russian officials have said Snowden is still in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, where he is entering his third week in hiding after arriving from Hong Kong on June 23.

The 30-year-old former CIA and NSA (National Security Agency) contractor is wanted on espionage charges in the US after revealing details of mass surveillance programmes.

From Moscow he has applied to 26 countries for political asylum, but so far only Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have indicated they would be prepared to grant it.

Overnight, Venezuela's president Nicholas Maduro repeated his offer of "humanitarian asylum" to Snowden, telling military officials his country was not afraid of the US.

He said: "We have decided, for the dignity, and as a clear message to imperialism, that we're not afraid, that the children of Bolivar do not fear the empire (United States)."

Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro has offered asylum to Snowden

"We have decided to grant political asylum to the young man Edward Snowden, in the name of a Venezuela of dignity, of an independent Venezuela."

But his foreign minister later said that Snowden had not confirmed his intention to come to Venezuela and that he would have to reach Venezuelan territory to seek asylum.

Precisely how he will be able to do so is far from clear - Snowden's US passport has been revoked, and his flight could be denied access to US airspace, or that of its European allies, if he is suspected of being on board.

Last week Bolivia said its president's plane was refused access to French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian airspace because of a report that it was carrying Snowden.

There are no direct flights from Moscow to Caracas, and all available commercial flights go through US or European airspace.

There is a possible route flying north from Moscow towards the Arctic Circle, then south over the Atlantic to South America, which would avoid all potentially hostile airspace, but this would require chartering a flight, at an estimated cost according to one analyst of around £130,000.

Conflicting statements continue to surround Snowden's travel plans.

On Tuesday a senior Russian official tweeted that Snowden had accepted Venezuela's offer of asylum, but within minutes his message had been deleted and he issued a hasty clarification.

Alexei Pushkov, who chairs the Russian parliament's international affairs committee, said his information was based on the evening news bulletin of a state TV station, which had been replaying an earlier clip of President Maduro.

WikiLeaks then posted a message confirming that Edward Snowden had not yet formally accepted asylum in Venezuela and that the states involved would make the announcement "if and when the appropriate time comes".

But both messages have also since disappeared. WikiLeaks' spokesperson declined to comment.

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